The Fabulous Flotilla

Book excerpt: The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, known in colonial Burma as the 'Fabulous Flotilla', was the largest privately-owned fleet of ships in the world. It was an entirely Scottish enterprise with nearly all its investors, management and ship's officers drawn from Scotland. Over 1,200 ships were ordered mainly from Clyde yards and each year carried the majority of the population of Burma on its river network without loss of life. The paddle steamers were amongst the largest in the world, innovative in design and technology, and very beautiful. The flotilla began as a naval task force in the 1820s, was commandeered in five wars, and was to end its life with the British evacuation of Burma in 1942, the greatest evacuation in British military history.Fascinating personalities emerge from Strachan's descriptions of Irrawaddy commanders and the flotilla's key players. The ships evolved over a hundred years into riverine versions of ocean liners with plush cabins, restaurants, shops and even post offices on board. The largest class of ships carried 5,000 passengers including royalty, celebrities of the day and famous writers like Somerset Maugham along with early tourists and big game hunters. The author takes us 1,000 miles upriver to explore the different regions of the country often highlighting Scottish connections. The river is the thread through which Burma's often tragic history, yet rich and glorious Buddhist culture, flows and only on a river journey can the country be understood. Renamed Myanmar in 1997, Burma is Scotland's 'lost colony' and the Scottish connection is little remembered today due to Burma's half a century of post-war isolation. In its 1920s heyday Burma had the highest concentration of Scots anywhere in the world, outside of Scotland, with the exception of Canada. With the 'opening up' of Burma in the early 21st century the Irrawaddy watershed is under threat. Deforestation resulted in the silting up of once navigable channels. China, with its 'belt and road' system that is a euphemism to a recolonisation of the country, plans to build one of the world's largest dams that would devastate the country's agriculture and fisheries.